DNA to solve mystery of Napoleon’s lost general

Moscow: Archaeologists are set to unveil the answer to a 200-year-old question over the remains of a French general who died during Napoleon’s 1812 campaign in Russia. Charles Etienne Gudin was 44 when hit by a cannonball in the Battle of Valutino on August 19 near Smolensk.The French army cut out his heart, now buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, but the site of the rest of his remains was never known, until researchers found a likely skeleton this summer. Genetic analysis is being carried out to confirm the identity, using DNA from one of his descendants. AP

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Remains of 227 sacrificed kids found in Peru

Lima: Archeologists in Peru say the 227 bodies they have unearthed from a site in Lima used by the pre-Columbian Chimu culture is the biggest-ever discovery of sacrificed children. Chief archeologist Feren Castillo said the children, who were aged between four and 14, were sacrificed between 1200 AD and 1400 AD in a ritual to honor the Chimu culture’s gods. The remains were found in a position facing the sea. AFP